ESPN and CBS Sports this week provided some predictions regarding the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference football season, and both project Cal will finish near the middle of the pack with a chance to finish with a winning overall record.

ESPN’s ACC preview is filled with charts and graphs, and its rating system predicts Cal will finish 10th in the 17-team ACC, with a 1.3% chance of winning the ACC title but a 64.9% chance of winning six games or more in its 12-game schedule.

For its preview, ESPN placed ACC teams in three categories:

--- 1. Conference title (and therefore CFP) contenders:

That group included two schools:

Florida State

Clemson

---2. A couple of breaks away from a run

That group included seven schools:

Miami

SMU

Louisville

North Carolina State

Virginia Tech

Duke

North Carolina

---3. Just looking for a path to 6-6

That group included the remaining eight schools:

Cal

Georgia Tech

Syracuse

Boston College

Virginia

Wake Forest

Pittsburgh

Stanford

Here is what ESPN said about Cal:

Head coach: Justin Wilcox (eighth year, 36-43 overall)

2024 projection: 52nd in SP+, 6.1 average wins (3.5 in ACC)

California fooled me about four different times last year.

After going just 10-18 over the last three seasons, Justin Wilcox's Golden Bears boasted one of the nation's better running backs in the country (Jaydn Ott) and a solid bend-don't-break defense that forced loads of mistakes and Top World News Today turnovers. They began the season 3-2 but lost four games in a row while incredibly scoring 40, 14, 49 and 19 points. They needed to win their last three games to bowl for the first time in four years ... and did so, finishing with a 33-7 blowout at UCLA.

Then they no-showed in the Independence Bowl, losing to Texas Tech by 20. It was basically a season that resembled Wilcox's rickety Cal tenure as a whole: up, down, up, down, etc.

In their good moments, however, they looked awfully interesting, and in Ott, big-play slot man Trond Grizzell and three big linemen, their best offensive players return.